State drops in child welfare

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

The state ranks 30th for overall child welfare, a study says.

YOUNGSTOWN — Life for kids in Ohio isn’t bad, but it could be better.

That’s the brief version of findings in the 2008 Kids Count Data Book released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private organization that advocates for public policy changes to meet the needs of children nationwide.

Ohio has slipped from its 28th ranking last year to 30th this year in overall child well-being. States are ranked by 10 measures that are supposed to capture a wide range of factors, experiences across development from birth to early adulthood, and permit legitimate comparisons because they are consistent across states and over time.

“What’s interesting is that Ohio has never really moved out of the middle range in the 19 years of the study. People have a false sense of security because things could be better, but at least the state’s not on the bottom,” said Barbara Turpin, Kids Count project director for Ohio.

The two most striking factors in the Ohio study are infant mortality rate, at one of the worst in the nation; and high school dropout rate, at one of the best.

Ohio’s infant mortality rate has risen from 7.6 in 2000 to 8.3 in 2005, meaning that for every live 1,000 births in Ohio, about eight infants die before they reach the age of 1. The national average has stayed the same from 2000 to 2005 at 6.9.

In Mahoning County, however, even though the rate increased from 6.0 in 2000 to 9.5 in 2005, the rate was nearly half that at 4.9 in 2006. This is a continuation of a trend to lower infant mortality rates in the county. From 1992 to 2006, the total number of child deaths decreased by more than 50 percent, according to data provided by the Mahoning County Board of Health.

“The number of infant deaths is declining, and that’s due to many factors including increased access to care, women taking better care of themselves, referral centers and programs like Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies,” said Matthew Stefanik, director of the Mahoning County Board of Health.

The leading cause of infant death in Mahoning County in 2006 was prematurity, which was listed as the cause of nine out of the 13 total infant deaths in the county for the year.

“If there’s a decrease in the number of infant deaths, then that’s an excellent thing. Moms are getting into prenatal care earlier and that’s what we want to see. Hopefully they’re not smoking or drinking and are listening to education programs and their physicians,” said Neil Altman, Youngstown health commissioner.

But not all mothers in Mahoning County are entering prenatal care at the same time.

“We recommend that women begin their prenatal care as early as possible, in the first trimester,” said Melissa LaManna, director of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies, a division of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio.

In 2006, 74.9 percent of white women entered prenatal care in the first trimester, compared with 49.1 percent of black women; and the infant mortality rate for 2006 was 11.9 percent for black women and 2.6 percent for white women in Mahoning County.

“We target the inner city, Struthers and Campbell. Some of our clients are still in school, most don’t have a job,” LaManna said. Health Moms, Healthy Babies is a publicly funded program run through Planned Parenthood that focuses on preventing infant mortality by home visits and neighborhood outreach to provide education for physician referrals, specifically for black women.

“My staff goes to them. It’s not a medical program. Usually pregnancy is the last thing on their minds. They’re worried about housing, paying utilities and finding clothes to wear,” she said. “We try to be the link for them to get the help that they need.”

Once a baby is born, regular checkups with a pediatrician are important to monitor the child’s health.

“If I can see a child at all of their well-checks, four to six times in the first year, then I catch things before they become a problem,” said Dr. John Cox, pediatrician for Wee Kids pediatrics in Canfield. “Most people don’t bring in their baby until it’s sick.”

But getting to pediatrician’s is a challenge for many area women, especially those involved in the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program.

“We provide bus passes, but the lack of bus routes and overall public transportation in the area is a big barrier to care. Most [clients] don’t have a car,” LaManna said.

Infant mortality was just one of the measures used by the foundation to rank Ohio at 30th in the nation. Another was high school dropout rates.

For this category, Ohio was ranked 10th because of a comparatively low dropout rate statewide at 5 percent in 2006.

“Most people understand that the first key to success in the work forces is getting a high school diploma, versus a couple of years ago when they didn’t necessarily think that,” said Scott Black, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education.

Schools have gotten better at providing career technical options and alternative schedules for students who need to work because of family circumstances, he said.

All of the factors listed in the Kids Count data book are interrelated, said Turpin.

“If we improve the quality of education that is given to our kids everywhere, that’s going to impact the levels of education and then the levels of poverty when kids get into the work world,” she said.